noticed that his enemy's attention had wandered from
himself he watched his chance, and stole softly away till he had reached
a clump of thick bushes, when he ran as fast as he could, till he
reached a river, where a man was mending his boat.

'Oh, I wish, I wish, I had a boat to mend too!' he cried, sitting up on
his hind-legs and looking into the man's face.

'Stop your silly chatter!' answered the man crossly, 'or I will give you
a bath in the river.'

'Oh, I wish, I do wish, I had a boat to mend,' cried the fox again, as
if he had not heard. And the man grew angry and seized him by the tail,
and threw him far out in the stream close to the edge of an island;
which was just what the fox wanted. He easily scrambled up, and sitting
on the top, he called: 'Hasten, hasten, O fishes, and carry me to
the other side!' And the fishes left the stones where they had been
sleeping, and the pools where they had been feeding, and hurried to see
who could get to the island first.

'I have won,' shouted the pike. 'Jump on my back, dear fox, and you will
find yourself in a trice on the opposite shore.'

'No, thank you,' answered the fox, 'your back is much too weak for me. I
should break it.'

'Try mine,' said the eel, who had wriggled to the front.

'No, thank you,' replied the fox again, 'I should slip over your head
and be drowned.'

'You won't slip on MY back,' said the perch, coming forward.

'No; but you are really TOO rough,' returned the fox.

'Well, you can have no fault to find with ME,' put in the trout.

'Good gracious! are YOU here?' exclaimed the fox. 'But I'm afraid to
trust myself to you either.'

At this moment a fine salmon swam slowly up.

'Ah, yes, you are the person I want,' said the fox; 'but come near, so
that I may get on your back, without wetting my feet.'

So the salmon swam close under the island, and when he was touching it
the fox seized him in his claws and drew him out of the water, and put
him on a spit, while he kindled a fire to cook him by. When everything
was ready, and the water in the pot was getting hot, he popped him
in, and waited till he thought the salmon was nearly boiled. But as he
stooped down the water gave a sudden fizzle, and splashed into the fox's
eyes, blinding him. He started backwards with a cry of pain, and sat
still for some minutes, rocking himself to and fro. When he was a little
better he rose and walked down a road till he met a grouse, who stopped
and as